The Greek and Spanish governments are under intense pressure from European leaders and NATO to send more air defense systems to Ukraine. According to a revealing report by the Financial Times, citing official sources, pressure is expected to intensify at today’s (April 22) meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers in Luxembourg.
Greece and Spain are in the spotlight as they have a large number of anti-aircraft systems, which Kiev can use to protect Ukrainian cities from escalating Russian attacks. “The Patriot they only make sense if they are used to save lives, not if they lie idle in storage bases,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky argued in a fresh appeal to Western allies for increased support.
Ukraine needs at least seven Patriot systems, which will “save many lives,” Zelensky stressed. After the online meeting of the NATO Council with the participation of Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the allies are committed to providing Ukraine with additional air defense systems.
A senior EU official told the Financial Times that the bloc’s member states are expected to take another step forward and offer Ukraine what it needs to counter Russia, which has recently turned its back on it. war.
“The European leaders personally urged the prime ministers of Spain and Greece Pedro Sanchez and Kyriakos Mitsotakis at a summit in Brussels last week to donate air defense systems to Ukraine, according to people briefed on the discussions,” the Financial Times reported in its report, adding:
“To the two leaders, whose armed forces have more than a dozen Patriot systems between them, as well as some other systems, such as the S-300, European leaders pointed out that their needs are not as great as Ukraine’s and that they do not they faced no imminent threat.” “We all know who has them (including the air defense systems), we all know where they are and we all know who really needs them,” said one of the sources.
Ukraine currently has at least three Patriot systems, one from the US and two from Germany. It is recalled that Germany was one of the first to promise an additional Patriot air defense system, followed by the Netherlands, which announced that it would allocate an additional $210 million for air defense and artillery ammunition for Kiev.
Kiev also uses long-range surface-to-air missile systems developed by the former Soviet Union, including the S-300 and S-200. Ukraine appears to have expressed particular interest in these legacy systems, especially the S-300 that Greece hasas they remain effective and the Ukrainian army knows how to use them, without the need for further training.
“There are countries that don’t have an immediate need for their air defense systems, to be perfectly honest,” said an EU diplomat. who participated in the preparations for today’s Summit, in which the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba, as well as the Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov, will participate via video. “The most important discussion concerns what member states can do to support Ukrainian air defense. That is the most important thing,” said a senior EU official.
The High Representative of the EU Joseph Borel, coming to the Council, expressed the hope that member states will listen to what Kiev’s needs are and present concrete proposals on what they can do. “We have asked the member states to do everything they can to increase Ukraine’s air defense capability,” he said, explaining that Ukraine, in addition to ammunition, needs missiles, as well as Patriot arrays.
The Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, in the context of checks carried out to identify available air defense systems from the member states of the Alliance, pointed out that “from this mapping it is confirmed that there are systems, such as the Patriot, in countries that are available to be given to Ukraine”. “I expect new announcements on strengthening air defense in Ukraine soon… I expect concrete announcements in the near future based on the information shared with us” Alliance member states for available air defense systems, he emphasized and added: “Many allies who do not have available systems have pledged to provide financial support to purchase them for Ukraine.”
The response of the Greek government
Commenting on the publication, the Greek government did not deny the pressures, but maintained that under no circumstances will it proceed with a move that “will even in the slightest endanger the country’s deterrent capability or air defense”. Specifically the government representative Pavlos Marinakis he said: “So far we have practically shown our help to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Beyond that, however, no move is going to be made – let me make this clear – that will endanger the country’s deterrent capability or air defense even in the slightest. We have many times made many refutations, I answer you categorically even today”.
